[Python-Dev] module extension search order - can it be changed?

[Guido van Rossum]

>     >> This doesn't quite make sense to me.  Instead of ".so cannot be
>     >> built" did you mean ".so cannot be imported"?
> 
>     Guido> No, I meant what I said.  Once the file is found, it will be
>     Guido> tried and if that fails, the other files won't be tried.  The
>     Guido> idea was that if the .so cannot be built, it won't be installed
>     Guido> -- but the .py will be there at all times.
> 
> In which case there is no .so file to try to find, thus no "feature".

I'm not sure if you're stil objecting.  The feature is that .so wins
over .py.  I though I've explained clearly why this is a feature.  If
not, please ask a more detailed question.

>     >> In any case, the current solution to my underlying problem (so many
>     >> failing stat() calls during module import) appears to be to create
>     >> $prefix/python23.zip and populate it with the contents of the
>     >> standard library using zipfile.PyZipFile.
> 
>     Guido> Right, that's what zipimport is for.
> 
> Any thought about having the installation process create and populate
> python23.zip?  It's not particularly hard.  I'm willing to submit a patch
> for the build/install process.

python23.zip is good for end users of programs written in Python, but
not so good for Python programmers: AFAIK it won't show source lines
in tracebacks for modules loaded from the zip file.

So it should be an option.  That said, I think it is a desirable
option.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)